Attention Pinsiders! I will soon be traveling across the USA (and Canada!) on a shoestring budget to fix YOUR EM pinball machines, teach YOU how to maintain them, and talk about your hobby. The result will be livestreamed/Facebooked/Pinsided along the way or possibly published in an upcoming book.

If you'd like to be part of "Nic's North American Pinball Tour" (NNAPT), reply here with your location and thoughts. I figure it will work like this: In exchange for putting me up for the night and contributing to the trip, I will spend an entire 8-hour day (or perhaps two sequential evenings if that works better)... fixing, teaching, anything you like. I will have sample mechs and replacement parts with me just in case.

I could also do a group class along the way if enough people are interested.

Start date will be after the Texas Pinball Festival, March 28th.

Sound like fun? LET'S DO THIS!

BTW just created a FB page to track this as well... https://www.facebook.com/pinballtour

For those who cannot get involved directly but would like to support the tour, I have created a Gofundme link below. No "goal" set... I'll just use whatever I get to extend the tour as far as possible. Thx!

https://www.gofundme.com/nics-american-pinball-tour

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And hey! Our own Ryan Claytor is currently offering pre-orders for tour tees! If you want one, be sure to get it before the tour starts!

http://www.elephanteater.com/12440/nics-north-american-pinball-tour

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This is where it all started. Little Nic & family in 1977 from a Dallas Morning News article about pinball. The photo was taken between the theatrical release of Star Wars and the debut of the Atari 2600 console... what a year!

Could this photo possibly be any more 70's? Epic mustache, neck scarf, mustard-factory yellow clothing and kitchen wallpaper, vintage pinball, astroturf, extensive oak walls, mushroom haircuts, and hanging fern. IT'S. ALL. THERE.

The pinball machines languished in storage for decades until late 2013 when I used them to teach myself how to fix and restore "EM tech"... giving it every spare minute of my time. I worked quickly enough to feature all three at the 2014 Texas Pinball Festival the following March. All of them played perfectly without a hitch! *whew*

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I've since sold two of the machines to other collectors. The first, Playball, was sold to a local family at Christmas 2013. Initially I was hesitant to part with one of my childhood heirlooms (and the first pinball machine I'd ever brought back to life), but their son had just returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan and loved baseball and pinball. It was an easy decision to let them have it... and a fitting farewell.

After selling Playball, I found myself eager to take on new challenges and thus Doozie was the next to go. It is currently owned by Shawn Christian, a fellow pinball collector and member of the Dallas Makerspace VECTOR Committee. (dallaspinball here on Pinside... look! you can see it in his GINORMOUS collection! https://pinside.com/pinball/community/pinsiders/dallaspinball)

Flipper Fair is the one I kept. I've since replaced the backglass and plan to give it my "no compromises" restoration treatment when time permits. Of the three, it is the oldest and my personal favorite... though some are creeped out by the clown motif (hey, c'mon, he's got two girls on his shoulders... wouldn't you be smiling too?).

The PM's and emails continue to go out. If you haven't received one yet, stay tuned!

This is quickly snowballing into a massive organizational challenge! As far as "possible" stops are concerned, I am now up to...

- -- ---==>>> 76 <<<==--- -- -

WHAO. This is going to be intense.

I should be able to handle four unique stops per week reliably, as most folks will need more than a single 4-hour visit. Heck, a lot of these games haven't been fully serviced in 40 years... in which case 8 hours would barely scratch the surface!

Anyway, assuming no catastrophies along the way, I'll be visiting 16-18 people per month. Which means at current estimates it should be about a four-month journey.

I was thinking of visiting ReplayFX at the conclusion in late July, but after a whirlwind cross-country pinball trip that might be too much of a good thing. I should probably consider something beachy and far away involving lots of margaritas.

No joke. Most of this is locked in (latest version).

This ain't no sightseeing selfie trip! It's all about the peoples and the pinballs.

It's 12,000 miles back to Dallas, I've got a full tank of gas, half a pack of pinball parts, it's noon, and I'm wearing sunglasses.

HIT IT!

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Visit #1 - Tony Macevicius (@Tmacev1) in Lindale, TX

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The subject: Atlantis - 1975 by Gottlieb

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After being welcomed by the house pup, Tony invited me into his soon-to-be game room with a custom screen print of the tour... what a surprise!

Atlantis is his first EM. He bought it for such a low price I dare not repeat the amount to make anyone feel bad. He had removed the score reels which were not resetting... and also discovered how fragile the ink can be after a light cleaning. Oops.

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After a quick tutorial, I discovered a melted 10-point relay coil and luckily had a spare to replace it with. Then cleaned, rebuilt, and repaired the reels which had various problems with new vinyl numbers. Also adjusted and cleaned the locking start/reset relay.

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We then enjoyed a few games & had fun late into the night. I also demoed my "stealth LED" treatment which looked so good he decided to leave it that way.

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Tony is off to a great start and I predict many more EM's will be heading his way soon.

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And now... off to Memphis!

Visit #2 - David Yopp at The Retro in Millington, TN

The subject: Grand Prix - 1976 by Williams

Hidden within the walls of a large consignment and auction house on the outskirts of Memphis lies a wonderful secret... a retro pinball arcade!

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You may not know David Yopp, but you will if you ever pass through here. He has been quite busy cranking away the days and nights to bring you the pinball joy.

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His arcade, The Retro, runs on quarters just like the good old days. But it also features unique modern touches like fiber optic starfield ceiling lights, illuminated bartop tables w/pinball playfields inside, and an array of vertical screens which allow onlookers to watch others play from the comfort of their barstools. Perfect for tournaments!

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Grand Prix had a few issues to attend to. The right kickout was intermittent, ball count wasn't always advancing, and neither of the bonus ladders were counting up or down correctly.

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We spent the evening adjusting and cleaning switches and rebuilding the bonus steppers which were almost completely seized up. It was David's first time to completely disassemble a stepper mech and he did an A+ job.

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After which, we played 2-out-of-3 on his game of choice: Butterfly - 1977 by Sonic. I won... and am now 2-0 on the tour. Who's next?

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Be sure to stop by The Retro if you're in the area... and ask David to play his custom classic rock playlist while you're there. Perfect vibe.

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https://www.facebook.com/theretropinballarcade

Next stop -> Cordova, TN

OK, so we're meeting folks and fixing games... but where in the samhill is this thing headed?

I present to you: Region 1 (of 5) - Southeast Bound

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Today I'm in the middle of Visit #3 (a four-day stop), but we had enough time to break away for tournament night at The Retro. I used the opportunity to upload two videos at 60fps.

Have a look... excellent frame rate for capturing pinball action!

Here are the final standings...

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Still wrapping up Visit #3 today so here's a video of yours truly giving a goofy interview to the local high school kids at TPF. A tired geek is a silly geek.

Skip to 6:07 for the pinball portion...

Visit #3 - Richard Rickman (@fumbleflippers) in Cordova, TN

The subjects: Captain Fantastic, Abra-Ca-Dabra, Mars Trek

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It was an occasionally rainy four-day visit at Richard's place, the longest scheduled stop on the tour. Time absolutely flew by as we worked through his priority project, Captain Fantastic. It is destined to reside at a local pizza parlor where he operates a few EM pinball machines.

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Richard began his collection around 2010. He now possesses a sizable number of pinball machines... perhaps as many as 80. How many of them do you recognize from the photos?

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The Captain presented us with several issues: Drop target bank was missing a post/clip (see it?), deformed pop bumper spoons (extremely common), unreliable ball count, weak pops, flaky lights, player count not illuminating, glitchy alternating relay... really quite a long list. But also a great opportunity to work our way through many different kinds of issues.

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If you ever work on Bally drop targets, you will need a long philips screwdriver to get those last two screws!

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Note also nearly every Bally could use new plastic pop bumper spoons. Just drill out the holes carefully on the new ones and they will fit.

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Also note the player count "fan" stepper unit. It looks clean from the top, but the wiper fingers were bowed at the edges (and thus were not illuminating the 1-2-3-4 player count).

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After using a switch adjuster to align them flat across and cleaning the circuit board... all was well again.

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The Cap'n then received the stealth LED recipe. Richard was impressed with its high-contrast (yet original-looking) effect and decided to leave it that way. We tuned the recipe further by leaving filament bulbs under the translucent inserts (extra ball and special), as well as substituting a few bulbs in key areas of the backglass where some overlighting was evident. I must say this was one of the most dramatic transformations yet... truly "Fantastic"!

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Richard got plenty of practice adjusting relays, polishing switch contacts, score motor switches, and stepper mechs.

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Later we examined Abra-Ca-Dabra which was double-clutching and/or not advancing the bonus drop target shots.

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It was a perfect opportunity to introduce Gottlieb's dreaded AS relay... also known as "the mech from hell". It is the worst thing in all of EM pinball. Richard and I spent about two hours discussing its nuances, cleaning, adjusting, checking, and re-adjusting it. After which we replaced the pop bumper yokes, bakelites, plungers, and fixed a few loose contacts on the playfield.

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On day three, a local pal (Joe) arrived with a nice Mars Trek needing some help. It was blowing fuses whenever an extra ball was earned. Also it would not display the player 1-2-3-4 lights nor the ball count.

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Someone had installed new lamp sockets using long nails which were touching the sockets deep inside the backbox... and thus shorting them out. This can be an easy issue to overlook but I knew from experience - I had once stapled a lamp socket too closely with the same result. I then adjusted a switch in the game over relay to make better contact for the lights.

All issues were resolved & Joe was happy again. We spent the rest of our time fine-tuning Captain Fantastic.

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It seems my lucky streak continues. I am now 3-0 on the two-out-of-three "home turf EM challenge". But wow... pretty slim margin this time!

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Richard has a lot of work ahead of him, but he is now armed with a new arsenal of tools and techniques to speed him to the finish line. If you're ever in Memphis... be sure to stop by Garibaldi's on Walker Avenue for a slice of pizza and a game of Aladdin's Castle. Or, if you wait just a bit longer, a nicely dialed-in, stealth LED'd, Captain Fantastic!

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Ah, if only I could do the same... but no time to rest! Onward!

Next stop -> Nashville, TN

Visit #4 - David Corrigan (@UberArcade) in Nashville, TN

The subjects: Rancho, Liberty Bell, Grand Prix

I have learned two things living on the road as a pinball nomad: One, that you don't really know how tightly wound you are until you can escape for some real perspective. Not for a weekend. Not for a planned vacation. But by throwing yourself into something so large, demanding, and unpredictable that you lose yourself entirely within the process of coming to terms with it.

And two, Tennessee is beautiful.

The drive from Memphis to Nashville was the best two hours I've spent on the road thus far. It was a smoothly-paved, undulating twist through purple redbud blooms under crystal-grey cloudburst skies. A loveliness which could also be felt behind the wheel. My car bounced along the scenic boulevards with a graceful rhythm, which might explain why Nashville became a city of music. It prompted the queuing of some 70's FM road tunes like "Amie" by Pure Prairie League and of course a bucketload of Creedence which never sounded so good.

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I met Scott, Seth, and David at The Raven, a small online media/advertising company with aspirations for growth. It was located in a hip downtown square called Cannery Row surrounded by small bar/music venues. It reminded me of my first "real" IT job working for Big Hand Productions back in 1993 in Deep Ellum... which was also a similarly modest cutting-edge tech outfit surrounded by local music halls and downtown bustle. It seemed like the perfect place to stash some pinball machines for a future gig.

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We started on Rancho (Williams, 1977). I spent some time explaining “relay theory” before putting Seth and David to work polishing contacts and checking switch gaps. Then I covered the process of servicing a score reel and cleaning the circuit boards with Mother’s Mag Polish. It had a broken switch blade on the end-of-stroke portion.

End-of-stroke switches are smaller than most. Replacement blades are not typically available to buy separately. The usual fix is to steal a working stack from another reel, but we didn’t have an extra lying around. So I took a normal blade, sawed it in half with a dremel cutting wheel, turned each piece 180 degrees, and sandwiched it in the stack. David remarked, “This is totally like watching MacGuyver”... which was good for a laugh. Then he held the wire in place as it was soldered it to the new makeshift blade tip. Worked like a charm.

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A 10-point reel was sticking due to a closed playfield switch. I opened it with a flat screwdriver and all was well again. Then I suggested an artistic tweak... swapping the white plastic nuts with polished nickel hex caps. “Pinball jewelry”, if you will. David liked it and we left it that way.

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On to Liberty Bell. The game wasn’t counting down the bonus evenly. As expected, the stepper was gunked up so we walked through the process of cleaning it. We also found both flippers were chattering due to the end-of-stroke switches. They weren’t opening wide enough at the end of the stroke, and the electricity was jumping the gap rat-a-tat machine-gun style. After polishing the contacts and increasing the gap... we found one of the switch contacts to be too small for the current load. I fashioned a new blade with a heavier-duty tungsten contact, soldered it in place, and the flippers were back in action sans-chatter.

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The stealth LED recipe claimed a third victim! Everyone was pleased with the Liberty Bell playfield after the upgrade. But we didn’t have a key to open the backbox and swap the lights, so we did the head of Rancho instead. David is planning to order a new shipment of LED’s to complete the rest.

Regarding the food scene, most cities have their own culinary specialty. In Nashville, that “thing” is “hot chicken”. Apparently this is a version of fried chicken rolled in cayenne pepper and spices and, according to David, is “something you must commit to, once ordered”. I love spicy food and regret missing the opportunity to challenge the bird. I lost track of time within the halls of the local “Game Galaxy” and my tight schedule is not a forgiving one. So we shall discuss the local arcade scene instead...

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Basically, it's great! I had time to visit two local haunts: Flashback Arcade, and Game Galaxy of Smyrna.

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Flashback is the smaller, newer arcade with blacklight carpet and brand new pins. Arcade games tend to be the more popular ones and/or larger-scale amusement-types and bemani. It is a modern-day Aladdin’s Castle, sans mall.

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Game Galaxy, on the other hand, is the larger, weirder, mostly-kinda-working arcade in a ramshackle warehouse. What makes this place special is the OUTSTANDING number of laserdisc games and arcade rarities. Around each corner you’ll find something to make you go DUDE! SPACE DUNGEON! Then DUDE! SEGA HOT ROD (runs on floppy disks!)... then DUDE! WARLORDS 4-PLAYER COCKTAIL! (yes, it is for sale, and yes, it is very expensive).

One thing to note is the vector and laserdisc games are only switched on Saturdays to prevent breakdowns and wear, so plan your trip accordingly. If you have an Astron Belt and/or Star Rider, send them here!

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Day two was spent on Grand Prix. A true barn find and thus needing extensive cleaning and adjustment. Really too much for just one evening, so I used the opportunity to guide Scott (who owns all of the machines, except the EM’s) through a stepper rebuild. I think he should own a few EM’s due to his mechanical aptitude. Didn’t need much guidance to rebuild it.

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Among his collection you might notice the four Black Knight variants: Black Knight, Jungle Lord, Pharaoh, and Solar Fire. Nice touch.

Amusingly, while we were working on Liberty Bell, David was awaiting a return Craigslist call on a $500 Gorgar… only to find it standing behind us! HA! Beware Nashville pinball hunters… Scott is the fastest pinball bandit in town.

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As for the ongoing best-of-three challenge… I am too tired to count, apparently. I remain undefeated at 4-0 despite the coil dust on my fingers and the erroneous extra digit.

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David was a great host and also runs the Grand Ole Gameroom Expo in November. I’ll do my best to return for the show later in the year and bring one of my EM’s along for the ride. Nashville has already left me with a number of positive impressions. Will be back, for sure.

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Lastly, if you’ve ever wondered what happened to the arcades of the 80’s, this might help explain it…

Next stop -> Madison, AL

Visit #5 – Bill Hanson in Madison, AL

The subjects: Spirit of ’76, Fathom, The Hobbit

As I drove south from Nashville to Madison, the trees shrank, the temperature warmed, and I began to wonder if (more likely when) I’d ever encounter The Unfixable Game. A game so temperamental and full of intermittent bugs that it would not be possible to get it running before time ran out.

Little did I suspect the shadow of this beast would be passing over my next stop.

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You may have heard of Bill Hanson via his company, “S4 - Super Skill Shot Shooters”. He manufactures high-quality replacement shooters for popular pinball machines.

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The Lord of the Rings is his best seller and it is easy to see why… it beautifully wraps the One Ring around a translucent base which resembles a red crystal. The outer resin coating is smooth to the touch and feels great when making precise shots. It’s extremely cool and I’ll have one with me on the tour if you’d like to see it (unless someone buys it first!).

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Bill can also create custom shooters with any choice of artwork in the handle. I’ll have this card-themed one with me as well.

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He also makes custom toppers. I liked the fire illumination effects of the balrog and Gandalf’s glowing staff.

The EM for this visit was Gottlieb’s Spirit of ’76, a red white and blue bicentennial-themed 4-player game (released in 1976, of course). Previously it had been worked on by none other than “the” Clay Harrell… which made me a little anxious. You see, Clay is renowned for having published some of the best pinball repair guides on the internet. In fact his work has been instrumental in my own learning process. So I knew whatever was wrong with this game would be no easy fix.

Initially, on a one-player game, it was scoring for player 1 and player 2, but only on ball 2. I suspected the player cam in the back (a beastly unit) wasn’t cycling properly, so I cleaned all of the switch stacks and gapped a few. After which, the game began to score player 1 and player 4, and occasionally wouldn’t reset the reels at all. Uh oh. Ker-chunk, ker-chunk… and then a fuse blew! Ughhhh.

Luckily, the fuse was an underrated 8-amp. It was replaced with the correct 15-amp. I removed the motherboard and cleaned and gapped several of the relays and score motor switches. After re-installing it, the game wouldn’t start at all. Gahhhh! I could sense Bill’s concern as the issues appeared to be worsening as the fixes continued.

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At this point I brought out the important tools… q-tips, alcohol, super lube, dremel, and brown lager. *hic*

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Bill found a temporary distraction with my assortment of zip-ties. Of the four colors available, he chose wisely… red and blue. Perfect for the bicentennial theme. Then Bill discovered something we should have found LONG AGO: The 3-or-5 ball selector plug wasn’t plugged in! HA! Now the game was scoring the right player for the right ball. However, it still wasn’t starting up every time.

Experts, you may have guessed it by now… the AX reset completed relay was the culprit. It wasn’t latching properly, and thus, not staying pulled in throughout the startup cycle. I strengthened the spring on the reset latch and it finally locked into place.

Hobbit had an issue with the L rollover of the L-O-C-K targets. A simple fix… just a slight adjustment of the switch tensioner.

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Fathom was experiencing trouble with the drop targets. The springs weren’t wound around the armatures and one of the kickout mechs was barely attached to the playfield. Fixed both, and we then enjoyed a lively game. Fathom is Bill’s favorite game of his collection (I am more partial to the Hobbit).

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I spent the rest of the time breezing through lamp socket fixes on the playfield. Ideally, we would have installed double-lights across the star inserts and center kickout… but no time. Also discovered a loose contact in the player unit which controlled player 3’s reel lights. Soldered it, tensioned it, and fixed.

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Stealth LED? Check. After deburring the lamp socket holes, Spirit of ’76 was given “the recipe” and it is going to stay. The rollover stars were lit with red frosted versions… no visible filaments. Looks really nice on this pin.

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I worked my ass off during this visit! Was barely functional during the final hours of day two but managed to maintain my winning streak. 5-0 and counting… how long can it last?

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Bill has carved out a nice niche business for himself and a quality collection of pins in the Alabama foothills. He has also come up with a creative way to beat the summer heat: Spelunking! Apparently there are “thousands” of explore-able caves in the area with temperatures in the 60’s. Literally, a cool idea.

I then shook my coil-dusted fist at the sky: Unfixable Game... YOU SHALL NOT PASS!!!

Next stop -> Lake City, FL